The placement of cargo into the cargo area of an automotive vehicle, such as the rear cargo area of a van or sport utility vehicle, is typically placed loosely within the confines of the cargo area, allowing the cargo to shift from one position to another within the interior of the vehicle as the vehicle moves along the highway. A number of devices have been created to restrain the movement of such cargo, including netting and organizers.
A typical usage of the cargo area would be to store groceries that have been placed in bags at the grocery store to transport the groceries from the store to the place of residence. In some instances, the items are small and would normally roll around within the rear cargo area, possibly damaging the item.
In U.S. Pat. No. 3,730,581, issued to Charles Parkinson on May 1, 1973, and in U.S. Pat. No. 5,261,716, issued to Richard Phelps on Nov. 16, 1993, door packets are taught for holding small items, such as maps and the like. In these door pocket devices, the exterior covering is expandable, such as in the Parkinson patent where the exterior panel is elastic in nature. The flexible pocket concept is extended into the inside of the glove compartment door in an automobile, as is taught in U.S. Pat. No. 6,682,115, issued to John Tiesler on Jan. 27, 2004. As with the door pocket devices, the exterior panel of the packet device has some flexibility to permit the expansion of the pocket to fit small items therein.
Multiple door pockets forming receptacles for use in holding cassette tapes on the inside of the door for easy access by the operator of the vehicle are shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,484,701, issued on Nov. 27, 1984 to Paul Frohn. The flexible barrier for restraining items on a shelf is taught in U.S. Pat. No. 5,601,198, issued to Doris Reed on Feb. 11, 1997. None of these prior art devices are operable to restrain the movement of small cargo items that are larger than the pocket on which the flexible panel is attached, and none have any flexibility with respect to the size of the restraining container for use with the small cargo items.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide a cargo restraining device for use in the rear cargo area of an automotive vehicle in which the restraining devices do not interfere with the loading of cargo into the rear cargo area when not in use, and which can be sized to better engage and restrain small cargo items into engagement with the restraining device.